What I thought after reading "Give up forward" written by a philosopher, Ogawa Hitoshi

　The following composition will be something about my miscellanious impressions after reading one of the books written by Ogawa Hitoshi san. As I have read it without taking notes, what I will write about it below might be different from his intention that he mentions in this book. 

　The other day I went to the library and borrowed three books there.

　As I had no books that I had wanted to read, I walked around in the library, without looking for anything. Even when there is almost nothing in my mind, there is no shaking off my habit. When I "came to," I was in front of the bookshelves full of books on philosophy. 

　The title "Give up forward" (「前向きに、あきらめる」) leapt out at me. The author was Ogawa Hitoshi(小川仁志). 

　At that night when I borrowed the book, I began to read it at home. 

　The subtitle of the book is "Philosophy for making a step forward"(一歩踏み出すための哲学). But I thought this book meant an essay concerning how to think about giving up or throwing up something. 

　This book was easy to read, but I stopped reading it midway, for I felt as if I had grasped the essence or the gist of it. 

　When you get lost in the forest, you wonder which way you should take. You have no idea of whether you go to the right or the left, in which case the best answer might be "Don't move." 

　We tend to think something is better than nothing. When you get lost and you are at a loss what to do, all you can do is to stop making a move. If you make a move when you don't know what to do, the situation might get from bad to worse, from worse to worst. 

　This book suggests giving up something is more valuable than doing something. 
　There are times both when you make a voluntary decision to quit and when you are forced to quit. But both can or might be an opportunity to change your life for the better. 

　When you are in trouble, in difficulty, or in despair, you will try to do something in order to get over the difficulty you are encountering. But there are times when your effort will end in a great fiasco and the situation surrounding you will be more and more complicated. 

　Doing nothing is not necessarily a bad thing. When you have to wait, you must not make a move. All you have to do is just to wait in a rainy day. To think you must do something when doing nothing is the best answer to the status quo of yours might be a sort of mindset you are embracing.  

(要旨)

「あきらめる」というとネガティブなイメージがある。しかし、山の中で道に迷ってしまって、どちらへ行って良いのか分からないというような状況のとき、「どうにかしよう！」として、なにも分からないままアチコチに動き回ることは得策ではない。とりあえず、その場に立ち止まっていたほうが良い場合もある。

困難に直面したとき、なんとか克服しようとするが、克服できないことも多い。そのようなときは立ち止まり、あきらめるという選択をしてもよい。動き回れば動き回るほど、状況を悪化させてしまうということもある。

あきらめることで見えてくる希望もある。